The Knowledge: cut costs using a car club

Using car club vehicles in place of pool cars has helped one company significantly reduce its travel costs and cut its vehiclerelated carbon emissions. Read on to find out how it went about it.

THE BACKGROUND

Siemens Industrial Turbomachinery Ltd, part of global technology giant Siemens, wanted to reduce its business travel costs, with a particular focus on vehicle use, as well as cutting its carbon emissions associated with employees driving for business. Its key objectives were to reduce its pool car fleet, improve vehicle utilisation and enhance its use of digital processes.

THE PLAN

The organisation turned to mobility specialist Enterprise whose transport consultancy team supported a move to a highly structured car club programme which would also deliver detailed data analysis on employee travel plans. The plan centred on replacing its pool car fleet with a number of Car Club vehicles at its offices.

THE PROCESS

Enterprise identified the need for a range of cars and vans located across two Siemens offices in Lincoln and one site in Aberdeen. Three Nissan Juke SUVS were positioned at each of the three locations while five vans were put in place in

Lincoln. All vehicles were made bookable by the hour or by the day.

Hundreds of Siemens UK employees now book the vehicles themselves, either online or using a mobile app, instead of via the fleet team, to manage the booking. They use their Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) smart ID cards to book and unlock the car club vehicles, which also allows Siemens to track who is booking the vehicles and for how long they're used.

This creates valuable data that is now being used to identify opportunities for further efficiencies, for example when employees might book a car club vehicle for eight hours to travel just five miles.

THE OUTCOME

The organisation has cut its travel costs by 28% in six months and reduced vehicles allocated to occasional business travel by a third by replacing its

20-strong pool fleet with 14 Enterprise Car Club vehicles. The low-emission and fuelefficient vehicles have also helped lower Siemens’ travel-related carbon footprint.

Because daily rental is no longer needed to back up pool fleet vehicles, Siemens has achieved considerable savings on delivery and collection charges and reduced the miles being driven for vehicle deliveries and pickups by more than 10,000.

Wayne Warburton, Head of Mobility

Services at Siemens UK, says: “It’s also making our employees more productive and efficient and changing their behaviours.

“Many will now combine trips to multiple destinations, while being able to book the vehicles directly means we’ve been able to reassign the entire fleet team and move them to other work.”

He adds: “We’re looking at expanding the programme to other sites because of the success it’s already demonstrated.”

Adrian Bewley, Assistant Vice President of Business Mobility UK & Ireland at Enterprise, says: “We worked closely with Siemens to analyse how vehicles were being used and how a better service could be provided with a dedicated on-site car club.”

Bewley continues: “The result is better mobility, fewer and shorter journeys and fewer vehicles, leading to reduced costs and a smaller carbon footprint.”